Any adults with ADD or ADHD here?

I was diagnosed in 1972 with "hyperactivity" (back in the pre "ADHD days") and although I have periodically taken medication, I can't seem to find anything that gives satisfactory results. My doctor has long recommended I undergo behaviour modification therapy, but it is not currently anything I can afford. This affliction is slowly driving me crazy; it has prevented me from accomplishing any of the goals I set for myself, it makes it very difficult for me to have a good long term relationship (6 months and I start getting bored and looking around), and it makes holding down a job nearly impossible. My family has only recently began to understand that this is not *just the way she is* and have stopped telling me to "Just make yourself stick things out." That's like telling someone with chronic depression to "Cheer up!".

Does anyone here have this condition, and if so, what have you found helpful? I'm about at the end of my rope here. This isn't how I planned for my life to go. :(

I'm 24 years old and I think I was first diagnosed when I was 10 or so. I was on ritalin for a while, but I guess it didn't help much. I have many of your conditions. I can't focus on anything for too long unless it interests or entertains me. Studying for classes is extremely difficult for me unless I can somehow put the material in some kind of context where it becomes relevant to me. I got by in High School because I was smart enough to get by without doing any studying. Things aren't quite the same now. It's been a long time since I've been in a relationship, but fidelity has never been a problem with me. I'm going to school now so all the work I do lately has been temp work. If the economy didn't suck now, I'm guessing I'd be able to hold down a job.

As you've mentioned, goals have always been a big problem for me. Something will spark my interest, learning a language, instrument etc, and before I learn anything substantial, my interest will be lost.

Have you had no luck with ritalin? I know for some people it's done wonders, but I've never quite understood the concept of giving amphetamines to hyperactive people. Other than that, I can only suggest that you try to alter your mental outlook all by your lonesome. That's what I've been trying to do. In anything I do now, I try to think about the light at the end of the tunnel, the big picture etc. I just started learning guitar and I've forced myself to practice atleast 45 minutes a day. I just don't allow myself any wiggle room.

I wish you the best of luck, I really do empathize.

There's actually a very neat theory to explain why an amazingly powerful stimulant works to calm ADDers down.

If you think about it, our most obvious symptoms are: jittery physical movements, such as shaking the leg or arm, constant chatter, fading in and out of conversations, and an inability to go to sleep/maintain a decent sleep schedule.

These are also the symptoms one displays when one stays up for way too long, like two days or more. You start getting jittery, you jabber endlessly about nothing and everything, you fade in and out of your surroudings, and it's difficult to finally go to sleep.

So, the theory goes, it's not hyperactivity, but hypoactivity.

Either way, it works for me. :evilgrin:

I've got undifferentiated ADD, the adult kind. Wasn't diagnosed until I was in my early 20's.

What we've found works best is a combination of Wellbutrin and Ritalin. I take a ton of Ritalin, 50 mg a day, but that's the dosage required for me. Everyone's body chemistry is different.

One thing that is going to be absolutely necessary, even once you get your meds fixed: Behavioural modification therapy.

You see, you have subconciously learned habits over the years, and those habits don't go away just because the driving force that caused them is being treated. I still, after having been medicated for 10+ years, have major issues with project completion. I have to make a seriously concious effort to maintain a conversation for very long. It's a daily thing, trying to prevent myself from sliding back into the behaviour I used to have, the self-centeredness, the flitting around, etc.

So, I'd recommend a combination therapy. I'm not saying to take exactly what I take, in the exact doses, but just ritalin didn't do it, and just wellbutrin didn't do it. The combination did it. I just wish I had had more behavioural mod when I first got on it, I wasted years having to do it by myself.

Neal Boortz is on a personal campaign about ADD/ADHD...

DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO THIS. JUST KEEP DRUGGING YOUR KIDS.

More and more medical and psychological professionals are speaking out against this phony disease of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Dr. Bob Jacobs, a psychologist, is on the advisory board of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology. He recently told a conference in Australia that ADHD is a behavioral problem, not a medical disorder. He correctly points out that there is no proof that ADHD exists.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/902460/posts

Couldn't find the article at Boortz' website but I knew I would find it at FR...

This article sent me through the roof ranting and raving like a lunatic. I sent off a blistering, steel melting email to Boortz as the parent of a 12 y.o. with ADD and the husband of an adult with ADD.

Don't let the right wing do this to us. Don't let the right wing get away with calling ADD/ADHD "bad behavior". If they had their way, they would also call Social Anxiety Disroder "the jitters", which I've read reference to several times.

Don't forget we are in a Culture War for our survival as America.

and I have fought this my entire life. I'm SURE if the RW had their way my condition would be chalked up to "Lack of self discipline or good old fashioned Christian values" or some such nonesense. Every night after I put my girls in bed I sit and am near tears with the overwhelming feeling of ONCE AGAIN not accomplishing anything I needed to. Again not doing the 1, 001 things I'd promised myself that I'd get to *tomorrow*. These feelings are all caused by the ROOT PROBLEM of my ADHD, but when I try to explain this to doctors, they just call it *depression* and hand me a prescription for the *latest-greatest* anti-depressant. I have been to Dr.'s that have wanted to put me on all different medications to treat my *depression* *bi-polar disorder* *borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder* and all kinds of stupid things. I'm SURE the RW wouldn't mind me taking all those medications and lining their pharmaceutical company pal's pockets. But those are not the issue. How they can fail to see the vast potential of marketing all the (what I've essentially found to be useless) drugs to people who "don't really have a *medical* disorder" is beyond me.

Lazarus, I'm really glad to hear that behaviour modification is working for you. I have been trying to find a counselor/therapist I could afford. How did you find someone? And if I may ask, does your medical insurance cover it? Thanks for responding also, people, I'm really needing some feedback/encouragement.

my present insurance covers some visits. Before, I was on my dad's insurance, i.e. he was paying for the visits.

What's interesting to me is the sad state of psychiatric insurance in this country. The insurance companies are forcing us into this medication overdrive, by cutting down on visits that could help us in other ways.

One trick I found is lists. Make a list of things to do, then, and this is the important part, get someone who doesn't have ADD to go over it and help you prioritise it. I found that I was actually overreaching, trying to do 10 times what I should reasonably be doing, so of course I'd fail, and that would set up depression, which would exacerbate the ADD, etc., etc., ad nauseum.

but there is also no denying that the drug industry is seeking to make a killing off of parents' (the most neurotic generation of parents EVER) fears about their kids. The industry doesn't just market their drugs direct-to-public these days - they market the disorders.

I feel like the whole world moves in SLOW MOTION. I talk fast, eat fast, walk fast. Can't sit still; have to bounce my knee or tap. Can't stick things out - I tend to create chaos everywere. YES INDEED.

I dislike medication and use exercise to calm myself down!

I just had an idea...maybe you could threaten to KICK MY ASS if I don't shape up! ;)

it shows no sign of subsiding. :7

What?

C'mon people, I know more of you are dealing with this...

:kick:

has mild ADHD. His is mainly what they call "inattentive type". Has problems focusing and complains that it takes him so long to do things. Not Hyper and was never a problem child at all. He has tried every med on the market and some experimental ones. None seem to do him a bit of good. He has made a lot of progress on his own, by being aware of his problems and trying behavior modification on himself. When he was in college, I had to read all of his "homework" to him, because he could not stay focused long enough. He had no problem when I read it to him and was an honors student. But, by working on himself he can now read an entire book. May take a little longer than the average person, but he gets it done. He is now going to try meditation. Some good results are being reported for people with ADHD and meditation.
My advice as a mother of a child with these problems is to get all the info you can.....read,...read...read and try to take more control on your own. It can be done.
Good Luck.

some online tests such as that found at Dr Amen's site. The tests say I have it but I have not been formally diagnosed.

I am always moving a leg or some part of my body. My stepdad gave me the only nickname I have ever had, Thumper, because I was always tapping my leg.

When I start something new I am all gangbusters about it but quickly get bored. I then let the new thing drop and pursue something else.

How do I get an MD to diagnose me?